To Mend These Broken Wings
by xXxWinglessAngelxXx
Summary: Autumn Belle is a seemingly normal high school girl - except that she skipped one grade and her best friend is one of the most popular boys in school. Dare Smithson. Everyone thinks they have something else going on, but they firmly deny it. Just as Autumn's life is getting normal, enter Derek Slayer, the hottest badboy in school, who has his sights firmly set on Autumn.
1. Empty spaces

It was the first day of winter vacation and it still hadn't snowed.

Autumn stood under a large oak tree, staring up at the dove-gray sky, only a few slits and patches visible between the bare branches and sparse, crisply colored leaves. Her caramel colored eyes were narrowed, flickering back and forth as if staring at something only she could see.

At least that what it looked like to the boy standing a few yards away. Of course he would never admit it if someone asked, but he had been fascinated in her for quite a while now. They went to the same school; he was 18 and she 17. They were in the same grade, same graduating class, though she was a year younger.

Rumor had it that Autumn had skipped one grade – specifically grade 6 – and that was what had resulted in her younger age. Whenever someone came to her with this rumor or one like it, she would just shrug with amusement in her eyes and cryptically say,

"Well, maybe it's true. Maybe it's not." Derek himself had always thought it was true. The way she carried herself, the way she spoke, gave off a much smarter vibe than one would expect.

Her syrupy eyes were sharp and intelligent, the ones that watch your every move, her hair was long, flowing and wavy, a beautiful array of brown, blonde and ginger, her face was narrow, with high cheekbones, full lips and deep-set eyes, her form was long and slender, with a wiry strength, and her personality couldn't be any more cryptic.

She loved to be around her best friend, Dare Smithson, but it was only around him that she would open up and be herself. Passing them in the hallway you could most commonly see her laughing at something he said, him engaged in a heated debate that she knew she would win, or the occasional, spirit-lifting sight of one best friend tickling the other, with her shrieks of laughter echoing in other's ears.

Derek folded his arms across his chest, leaning on a tree beside him. Autumn hadn't seemed to notice him; she was still staring up at the sky, as if wishing for the white particles to start floating down.

She had always seemed so peculiar to him. She would never answer a question directly, and when she did give out an answer it was never direct and in some sort of riddle. She just loved to see others squirm.

Derek had always been considered one of the more attractive boys in the school; with short, black hair, flaming amber eyes and a tall, lean but muscled build he was almost always swooned over by more than one girl. But all those girls who were constantly flirting with him, throwing themselves at him, they didn't mean anything. The only girl he wanted, the only girl he had ever wanted to follow him and swoon over him, was Autumn. But the thing was that Autumn had almost never even acknowledged his existence. She answered him when he said hi, but other than that had never furthered conversation with him.

"Ever heard of 'take a picture, it'll last longer?'" Autumn's voice startled Derek out of his reverie. She was still looking up at the sky visible between the branches of the oak tree, though now her narrowed gaze showed a bit more irritation. Her mouth was set in a firm line, and Derek felt the blood rise to his cheeks as her caramel eyes flickered over to him briefly.

"Uh...sorry," he stuttered, standing and walking over to her, half expecting her to just turn and walk off. She didn't however, and instead turned and crossed her arms, frowning at the boy as he walked over.

"Derek, right?" she said, tilting her chin up a bit as he approached, ignoring his apology. That was the other thing about Autumn that Derek both admired and liked about her. She was defiant, mainly because for six years of her life she had had the 'popular' group of kids chewing at her ankles for not being one of them, for hanging out with Dare. She always had the potential to be one of them. She was one of the most beautiful girls in school, she was artistic, funny, smart and flirty at times.

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. A nervous habit of his, really hard to break. "And you're…Autumn?" He feigned not knowing, not wanting to come off weird and creepy. She nodded slowly, and reverted her facial expression back to her normal one; guarded and careful. She was always careful around people who weren't her friends or Dare.

"Why were you watching me?" She was also blunt. Derek shifted from foot to foot, trying to avoid that topic. He looked up at the gray sky, at the grass at his feet, anywhere but at the girl. "Well?" Derek gave a long, loud sigh, knowing Autumn too well to think she would let something like that go.

"I…just wanted to…to ask you something…and well, you seemed so peaceful." It wasn't a complete lie. He did have something he wanted to ask her – though it was a bit of an awkward topic – and she had looked extremely peaceful, too peaceful to be disturbed. She lifted her right eyebrow – quite an impressive trick, actually – and nodded very slowly, as if she didn't completely buy that.

"What is it?" Derek opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut, frowning as he groped around for something to say. Autumn gave a hefty sigh and examined her dark purple nails as she waited – obviously impatient – for an answer.

"Well…ah, well what I wanted to know was…" He paused, and looked closely at her. She looked slightly more curious than impatient, though it was a very small bit more. "Is there something between you and Dare?" He finally blurted out the question, and Autumn's eyes flew wide, and for once she was rendered speechless.

"What?!" She found her voice again and snapped out the question/demand with a fierce light in her gaze. "Of course not! Dare and I are just friends!" It was true that Derek thought there was something more, as did nearly all the rest of the school, except for Dare and Autumn's best friends. She looked not only furious but also baffled and seriously confused.

Derek gave a sigh. "Sorry I asked…" And with that the boy turned and walked off, head down, hands in pockets.

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**I hate school.**

**Anywho, new story time! This one's been LOOOOONG in the making. Hope you like it!(I know I do)**

**Read and Review, my lovelies!**

**~xoxo WinglessAngel**


	2. Distant Faces

Not once in her life had Autumn been this confused.

Her head was lowered, letting her long hair fall forward as she marched down the hall, her lean hands with a white-knuckled grip on her binder. Most other teens slid out of her way before she reached them, with ironic glances at one another, but there were a few that the girl had to push rudely past in order to make her way down the hall to her class.

After what seemed like an endless trek down the crowded hallways of the school, Autumn finally found herself outside of Mr. Boudehane's room. Blowing out a heavy sigh, she twisted the doorknob and crept inside, careful to be absolutely silent.

Dare, sitting across the room, made a face at her, but she just shook her head discreetly and tiptoed over to her desk next to another girl – Madeline. She was nearly to her seat when her least favorite teacher's voice made her stop in her tracks.

"Ms. Belle!" Autumn's eyes narrowed and her lips tightened as she wheeled around, aiming her glare at Mr. Boudehane.

"Yes, Mr. Boudehane?" she asked stiffly. If she could pick one teacher to get rid of, it would be him. He liked to prove Autumn wrong, call her out on every little typo or err, and just straight up humiliate her. The main reason he did that was because Autumn was constantly showing him up for one thing or another.

Mr. Boudehane's hard brown eyes locked onto her syrupy caramel ones as he snapped out, "You're late." Autumn rolled her eyes, and Dare, sensing what she was about to do, started shaking his head vehemently, but if the girl noticed him, she choose to ignore his antics.

"No, really?" Autumn snarled, clenching her fists tighter on her binder. It was the typical routine, including the part with Dare trying to stop it. First the teacher would accuse her of something, she would deny it or snap something back, Dare would try and stop her, then Mr. Boudehane would tell her to sit, with spittle dribbling down his stubbly chin.

Before the teacher lost it completely, Dare jumped up, dodging around Madeline, and grabbed Autumn's arm, dragging her down into her seat. Her face was still twisted into a cold sneer, her eyes narrowed at the front of the class.

"Calm down!" Dare whispered to her, as Mr. Boudehane, at the front of the class, turned around and glowered at the whiteboard behind his desk. She lowered her gaze to the writing scribbled across the fabric top of her favorite binder, her breathing heavy. She wouldn't even look up at him.

He would've spent the next several minutes, maybe even the entire hour of social trying to figure out why, asking her why and begging for answers, if not for their teacher barking at him to sit down at his proper seat. He slid away from Autumn and sat down next to his partner – Dayle.

Thoughts whirled out of control, ideas and resolutions slipping further and further out of Autumn's reach. Her whole mind was in turmoil; her normal, logical way of thinking would be of no use in this situation. But it was the only way she knew, the only way she had ever used to sort out her problems, and she didn't know what else to do, how else to think, how else to sort out the problems plaguing her mind.

She was completely tuned out to Mr. Boudehane's lecture; not paying and mind to the words tumbling in a rush from him; as they made no sense to her muddled brain anyway. Everything was spinning out of control, away from her grasp of comprehension, with one face centering the entire mess: Derek's face.

This was what confused her the most. Why was he – of all people – the center of her thoughts? Why was it his face who danced around the edge of her mind, taunting her with answers and solutions to all her problems?

She lowered her head and rested her chin on top of her folded hands, ignoring Madeline's look of concern shot her way. She needed to talk to Derek, she needed to find out why he had even considered the notion of her and Dare being more than just friends.

Did Dare know about it? Was Derek asking her this because Dare had mentioned something to him or someone else? A sudden flare of panic shot through her and she raised her head abruptly, looking over at Dare with wide eyes.

He didn't notice. A growl of frustration rose inside her chest, but Autumn forced it back down, settling instead on glaring at the back of her best friends' head. He better not be saying anything that wasn't true.

Once the panic and anger settled, another, more foreign emotion sprung into her mind: uncertainty. This just pitched her into an even deeper void of confusion.

Did she feel something else for Dare? Was Derek onto something when he asked her that? With a soft groan, Autumn banged her head against her desk, glaring at the backs of her eyelids.

She didn't know what to do.

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**What do you think? I like this chapter a lot, it took me a while to write as well.**

**Read and Review!**

**~xoxo WinglessAngel**


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